Vincenzo Nibali, who finished 4th at the last Tour de France, would like to be present at the Vuelta a Espana. But the Astana Pro Team is still uncertain if he will recover after a strong month of July. Interviewed by Cyclingnews, Nibali’s agent Alex Carera explained that the plan is to be in Spain to win the three-week race.

"If Vincenzo goes to the Vuelta it’s really important that he has a good condition to support the ambitions of the Astana team. The plan is to go to the Vuelta to win, with Vincenzo, or Fabio Aru, and it’s really important that the condition is very good, to support these ambitions. He will probably make the decision next Saturday."

After the stages in Pyrenees, some rumors announced the Sicilian will leave Astana Pro Team in 2016. But Alexandre Vinokourov, the general manager, was told it was immediately not true. "I think there is no problem. Vincenzo has a good relationship with the staff and team. Of course everything is better when there are many victories. It’s more straightforward, but that’s life. Vincenzo is a good man, has a good image, and I think he’s happy there. He has stayed with the team for 3 years and I think he’s happy."

Carera will meet again the staff after the Tour of Lombardy. "Vincenzo is a star of cycling, he has had great results in the last four seasons, so it’s normal when other teams know that his contract finishes at the end of 2016, there are some teams that are interested. Of course, if his contract finished this year, it’s normal that I would have already started to talk with Astana and many teams but at this moment I don’t think it’s serious to talk."